PA.XI.A.R3
Risk managementEffect of visual illusions and night adaptation during all phases of night flying.
From the FAA library
- Chapter 11: Night Operations › How to Prevent Landing Errors Due to Optical Illusions › Night Emergencies
completed in the normal landing attitude at the slowest possible airspeed. If the landing lights are unusable and outside visual references are not available, the airplane should be held in level-landing attitude until the ground is contacted. ⦁ After landing ... turn off all switches and evacuate the airplane as quickly as possible. Night operations present additional risks that pilots should identify and assess. Night flying operations should not be encouraged or attempted, except by pilots that are certificated, current…
- Chapter 17: Aeromedical Factors › Vision in Flight › Night Blind Spot
Night Vision There are many good reasons to fly at night, but pilots must keep in mind that the risks of night flying are different than during the day and often times higher. [Figure 17-16] Pilots who are cautious ... educated on night-flying techniques can mitigate those risks and become very comfortable and proficient in the task. Night Blind Spot It is estimated that once fully adapted to darkness, the rods are 10,000 times more sensitive to light…
- Chapter 11: Night Operations › Night Illusions › False Horizon
light source that might cause an unwanted reaction to blinking or flickering lights. ⦁ Sunglasses can aid the dark adaptation process, which is delayed by prolonged exposure to bright sunlight. Night Illusions Visual illusions are especially hazardous because pilots rely ... their eyes for correct information. Darkness or low visibility increases pilot susceptibility to error. Two illusions that lead to spatial disorientation, false horizon and autokinesis, concern the visual system only. False Horizon Flying at night under clear skies with ground…
- Chapter 11: Night Operations › Night Vision › Night Blind Spot
Occurs at dawn, dusk, or under full moonlight levels and is characterized by decreasing visual acuity and color vision. Under these conditions, a combination of central (foveal cones) and peripheral (rods)vision is required to maintain appropriate visual performance. Scotopic ... Vision. During nighttime, partial moonlight, or low intensity artificial illumination conditions, central vision (foveal cones) becomes ineffective to maintain visual acuity and color perception. Under these conditions, if looking directly at an object for more than a few seconds…
- Chapter 17: Aeromedical Factors › Flicker Vertigo › Night Landing Illusions
Night Landing Illusions Landing illusions occur in many forms. Above featureless terrain at night, there is a natural tendency to fly a lowerthan-normal approach. Elements that cause any type of visual obscurities, such as rain, haze, or a dark ... runway environment, can also cause low approaches. Bright lights, steep surrounding terrain, and a wide runway can produce the illusion of being too low with a tendency to fly a higher-than-normal approach. A set of regularly spaced lights…
- Chapter 8. Medical Facts for Pilots › Section 1. Fitness for Flight › 8-1-5. Illusions in Flight
wider-than-usual runway can have the opposite effect, with the risk of leveling out high and landing hard or overshooting the runway. (c) Runway and terrain slopes illusion. An upsloping runway, upsloping terrain, or both, can create the illusion ... that the aircraft is at a higher altitude than it actually is. The pilot who does not recognize this illusion will fly a lower approach. A downsloping runway, downsloping approach terrain, or both, can have the opposite effect. (d) Featureless…